spring is in the air

hello,

sorry i've been so bad at keeping this up, as you probably know i'm not really a blogger at heart... anyhow, life in morocco continues to treat me well. it's starting to really feel like summer here, the saharra sun has definitely put some renewed life into the city. the streets are buzzing even more than usual and everyone seems to be in extra good spirits. ha, yesterday the guy who i buy oranges from told me that if i stayed in morocco i would get some color in my skin 'ench'allah' ['if god wills it', or in this case more like 'i hope to god'].

let's see, what is new... well, last weekend i spent a couple of days in the atlas mountains visiting my roomate, jordan, in the village where he is researching. beeeautiful! it felt so good just to get out of the city and breath some fresh air, and the atlas really are breath taking. the village itself was really amazing as well. it was wonderful to have jordan as a sort of tour guide, he's been living there off and on throughout the year and really has done a great job of immersing in the community. we spent the first day pretty much going from house to house drinking tea and eating cookies, soup etc, talking about the weather and catching up on gossip. well, jordan did all of the catching up- i myself had no idea what was going on because everyone was speaking berber. but jordan did some good translating so i caught the juicy parts. the hospitality in the community was really amazing, it seemed like every time we left one door someone would come along and invite us into their house- and it was almost impossible to tell who lived where because everyone was in everyone else's house. oh! and i met jordan's new baby goat. don't worry, he's a vegeterian, the goat is purely for bragging purposes when he's talking with the other men. but he was so cute i almost wanted to bring him back to marrakesh with me... also of note, i went on a hike with a boy, mohammed, who looked like he was about 10, and got absolutely burned. not only was he like half my height, but he was wearing plastic sandals and yet still hiked me into the ground. he was jumping from rock to rock and laughing as i was huffing and puffing behind. i think i was border-line crippled yesterday i was so sore, but the view at the top was totally worth it!

so yeah, i really enjoyed my time there. hopefully i'll get to return for a longer stay... there is some talk of exchanging english lessons for room and board, so that is possibly my plan for the summer... we shall see. speaking of bartering, after i leave this internet cafe i'm going to talk with a woman about exchanging english lessons for morrocan style embroidery ones. sweet deal, huh? i'll let you know how it goes.

ok, i have to get going. hope things are going well on the other side of the ocean.

best,
maura